Operation of the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at Michigan State University as a National User Facility and Support for its Research Program

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This award provides funds for operating the National SuperconductingCyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at Michigan State University as a nationaluser facility; for supporting the MSU faculty and staff to conductresearch in nuclear science, nuclear astrophysics, and accelerator andinstrumentation physics; and for serving as a center dedicated totraining the next generation of scientists. Since its inception, the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory(NSCL) at Michigan State University has played a significant role innuclear and accelerator physics research, both in the U.S. andworldwide. This role will continue at an enhanced level with theCoupled Cyclotron Upgrade now nearing completion. In the 1996Long-Range Plan of the NSF/DOE Nuclear Science Advisory Committee, thisupgrade project was recommended to be the highest priority for newconstruction. Large intensity gains of intermediate-energy primary heavy-ion beams aremade possible with the coupled cyclotron operation. Together with theincreased acceptance of the new fragment separator, it will be possibleto produce fast beams of rare isotopes typically more intense by factorsof 100 - 10,000 than available at the previous facility, providingluminosities in the light-to-midrange mass region (A50) that will beunsurpassed worldwide. A versatile array of new experimental devices will be brought on-linethat will significantly enhance the ability of users to conduct cuttingedge research with a broad range of rare isotope beams. Three of thesenew instruments are funded by the NSF: (1) a set of eighteen segmentedgermanium detectors for studies of intermediate energy coulombexcitation and knockout reactions; (2) a 4-Tesla-meter high-acceptancespectrometer that can be combined with large-area neutron time-of-flightdetectors for neutron and charged-particle spectroscopy at very smallangles; (3) a high-resolution silicon-strip CsI detector array thatpermits measurements of isotopic abundances, excited state populations,and isotopically resolved correlation functions with a high precisionand efficiency that cannot be matched by any existing detector array. Other new equipment under development include a stopped-beam facility(DOE funded) and a 9.4-Tesla precision Penning ion trap (MSU funded) forprecision mass measurements, weak interaction studies, and atomicspectroscopy. For the next decade, the NSCL will be the premier rare isotope researchfacility in the U.S., with a research focus on three major areas offorefront scientific interest: 1. exploration of the nuclear processes that occur in explosive stellarenvironments and that are responsible for the ongoing synthesis of theelements in the cosmos; 2. exploration of the properties of hot nuclear matter at sub- andsupra-normal densities (such as those found in neutron stars); 3. exploration of exotic nuclei with unusual ratios of protons toneutrons and the determination of their properties.